Jacksonville University to Present ‘The Weston Women’

Jacksonville University’s College of Fine Arts will present “The Weston Women” on June 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20 at 7:30 p.m. in Swisher Theatre on campus.

The play, directed by Dwayne Holden, was written by 2008 Helford Prize winner David Loewy.

Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for seniors, military and general students. Admission is free for JU students, faculty and staff with appropriate ID.

“We want to provide the best education for our theatre students, while servicing our community and this has been a fantastic opportunity to do so,” said Dean Bill Hill. “By blending our local creative community with our campus learning environment, we will be bringing something truly original to the city, while teaching our students the invaluable knowledge of how to produce and design the set of an award winning play.”

Casting included four female and three male actors covering a range of ages.

“The Weston Women” began four years ago as a notebook entry. The characters, Carrie, Sherry and Maddie Weston, each deal with questions of control and identity. Carrie, the mother, is transitioning from homemaker to cabaret singer without her daughters’ knowledge. Sherry is trying to be a mother, despite the fact she can’t get pregnant, and Maddie has never been good at living in everyone else’s reality.

“The play is a two-act answer to the questions: How much can we define our reality, and how much do we have to accept what’s already there?” said Loewy.

A native Texan, Loewy received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2002, he moved to New York and became a founding member of Storahtelling, a Jewish-ritual theater company. In 2001 and 2002, he was named a Spielberg Fellow in Theater Arts Education by the Foundation for Jewish Camping in New York.

Holden graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from the University of North Florida in 1995. Since then, he has acted in numerous films such as “The Flamingo Rising,” as well as many regional theater productions including the lead in “Fortune’s Fool” at Atlantic Beach Experimental Theatre in Atlantic Beach, Fla.

In 2005, Bruce Helford ’75, a Peabody award-winning producer, began offering the $10,000 Helford Prize as a call to spark new, creative playwriting. He is president of Mohawk Productions in Burbank, Calif., and was the creative force behind “The Drew Carey Show” and “George Lopez.”

For more information, contact Holden at jaxholden@gmail.com or call the College of Fine Arts at (904) 256-7045.